Good afternoon from Copenhagen
As day three of the UN Climate Change summit in Copenhagen wraps up, consider a little history - precisely, a "where are we now" lesson learned since the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change held in Kyoto, Japan in 1997. The New York Times recently ran a feature tackling just that - the below graphic touches on the lessons learned, "including how little actual progress any nations have made towards meeting their Kyoto 'obligations,'" as Jesse Jenkins of WattHead pointed out. As the Times notes, "The legacy of the Kyoto Protocol is mixed." Of the 36 wealthy nations who agreed under the 1997 treaty to cut their emissions by an average of 5% below historic 1990 levels, just 18 are on track to meet their targets, almost all of them in Europe.
More from Jesse Jenkins of WattHead in regards to the climate change summit. In a recent post, he said, "Forget 80% by 2050 and 17% by 2020. Time to stop fixating on 450 ppm vs 350 ppm. There's only one number really worth the world's attention: $10.5 trillion. That's the additional investment required between now and 2030 to put the world's energy system on a lower-carbon path, according to the world energy watchdog, the International Energy Agency." Taking a page from Cuba Gooding Jr's book, Jenkins goes on to say that there's only one thing he wants from the conference, and that's "show me the money." Read more HERE.
Here come the warm jets. “I will not be one of the sycophants that says climate change is the biggest problem facing the world and we need to do all these draconian things that cost jobs.” That was Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), the top Republican on, you guessed it, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, perhaps the most persistent silver-tongued skeptic on the flat-Earth circuit. Get ready: Barton is traveling to Copenhagen and vows to spoil the party. Ugh.
Also, “Climategate” ---regarding a leaked draft agreement from yesterday---turns out to be nothing, as usual these days when lazy journalists throw "-gate" on to any headline hoping it will stick. Like Public Enemy says, don’t believe the hype. Full story HERE.
